GERMANY: ARTIST CHRISTO COMPLETES WRAPPING OF THE REICHSTAG скачать в хорошем качестве

GERMANY: ARTIST CHRISTO COMPLETES WRAPPING OF THE REICHSTAG

(25 Jun 1995) Natural Sound Bulgarian-born artist Christo and his French wife Jeanne-Claude completed their 'wrapping' of Germany's future parliament building in Berlin Sunday. The silver-veiled Reichstag joins past Christo projects such as a fabric-wrapped Pont Neuf bridge in Paris as well as islands off the coast of Miami. The newly-clad Reichstag, one of Germany's most important national symbols, is expected to attract more than three million visitors during the next two weeks. Bulgarian artist Christo and his French wife Jeanne Claude realized their dream on Sunday. It had taken seven days of hard work, but they had finally wrapped the Reichstag in Berlin. The historic building, inaugurated in 1894 as parliament building for a united Germany, has had a turbulent past. It was gutted by fire in 1933 and heavily bombed in 1945. Until reunification, the war- scarred building stood alone on the then-East Berlin side of the Wall. Tens of thousands of people turned out early in the morning to see the one hundred thousand square metres (one million square feet) of aluminum-impregnated polypropylene, secured with over 15 kilometres (8 miles) of blue rope covered every inch of the building's grey stone facade. It took a team of ninety professional climbers and one hundred and twenty workers seven days to install 70 panels of cloth. It took tourists just seconds to collect the miniature samples of the cloth that were being handed out. Sunday's crowds were the first of an estimated three million spectators expected to visit the Reichstag before it is unwrapped on July 6th. But the wrapping has met with strong opposition. Critics argue that it demeans the Reichstag. Once Christo's show is over, work will begin to renovate the dilapidated home of the old Prussian parliament for the new German parliament, which is scheduled to move in by the year 2000. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...